Chapter Text
Shun was 6 when Black Beat awakened.
He was playing alone in the woods by his house when it happened. The pain was immense, the power too much for his 6-year-old body to handle as it radiated from him, destroying everything within a fifty meter radius. He didn’t immediately recognize the man who came to help. He was tall with dark hair and a long face wearing some kind of dark robes. When Shun saw him, he screamed at him to stay back, he’d only end up hurting him, but he didn’t listen. He was fast, Shun didn’t even see him move before he was in front of him, wrapping Shun’s arms with red bandages.
“These will keep you and those around you safe,” he said. “Don’t ever take them off unless you’re at home. I’ll put up a barrier for you there so you won’t have to worry. Okay?”
Shun sniffed and nodded. “What’s going on? What was that? Who are you?”
The man’s face softened. “I see you haven’t yet regained your memories. You will with time. Nothing can keep The Jet Black Wings at bay for long.”
When the man stood up to leave, Shun realized he had a sword strapped to his back and something clicked. “Wait! You’re him! You’re the guy from my dreams!”
For years, Shun had been having dreams involving men in black cloaks with masks and swords. Many of them were bad but some were good. One of the good guys had a sword that looked just like the one strapped to this guy’s back.
The man stopped and looked back. “So your memories have been returning.”
What? “They’re… memories?”
The man nodded. “You may not completely understand right now, but I’m a friend from your past.”
“Can you stay?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid I’m needed elsewhere. But I will return. Promise you’ll stay out of trouble?”
Shun nodded. The man smiled and ruffled his hair. When Shun blinked, he was gone.
Over the years, the dreams turned around in Shun’s mind and became full-fledged memories. An entire life that he led before being reborn as Kaidou Shun. He kept his power sealed, knowing that in this world, he had no semblance of control over it, and as he grew older he felt it grow stronger, pulsing beneath his skin, aching to be released. At full strength, before he used the Forbidden Secret Art, Phantom, to reincarnate, Black Beat had been capable of destroying worlds if he’d let it. He could tell that it was nearing that strength again.
Though it was clear that the Dark Reunion was unable to cross the barrier between their worlds in person, as Shun grew, he realized more and more that they were still able to cross using magic and spiritual projections. While this prevented them from accomplishing anything major, it did mean that they were able to monitor Shun and often tamper with his life in small ways.
And, okay, maybe the fact that he forgot his pencil on the first day of school and tripped over his own feet really was his own fault but it really could’ve been the Dark Reunion!
(Okay, so maybe he was just a teensy bit paranoid, they were an ultra powerful organization trying to take his power after he betrayed them, so sue him if he happened to see them around every corner in his anxiety-addled brain.)
When Shun met Saiki, initially he didn’t think much of him. He was just another average student. A bit quiet, maybe, and without any real friends, but there was nothing really that interesting about him.
Except that for some reason, Shun couldn’t get the guy out of his head. There was something about him that just seemed so familiar . It was like a word he’d forgotten that was just on the tip of his tongue, try as hard as he might, he couldn’t quite figure it out.
So of course it was in the middle of the night, in a half-awake stupor bent over his English homework that it came to him.
His aura…
There was no doubt about it. Saiki was like him, reincarnated from their home world. Not only that, Shun knew him. They were comrades in the fight against the Dark Reunion. Of course, Saiki didn’t look anything like he did back then, but that aura was unmistakable.
Saiki was the feared and renowned Death Shadow.
But, why hadn’t he said anything? Could it be that the red bandages sealing the power in his right arm were so powerful that not even the great Death Shadow himself could sense Black Beat? While the Searing Blade’s magic was powerful, it couldn’t be enough to shroud his essence completely, surely. Well, Shun’s comrade had always had more of an aloof personality. He probably just assumed Shun had recognized him and hadn’t wanted to make a production out of it. Even so, Shun was a tad surprised he hadn’t noticed him using any of his powers.
Well, Shun supposed, like him, it looked like he didn't have full control over his power either. It was something about the atmosphere of this new world. Since the power didn’t originate from there, it wasn’t stable. Oh well, in any case, at least they still had the power from their past lives. Shun didn’t know what he’d do if they were completely defenseless. After all, he knew it couldn’t be long before the Dark Reunion made a move for real.
“Did you hear? A deadly snake escaped from the local zoo!”
“There’s a poisonous snake on the loose?”
Shun entered the room upon hearing his classmates’ words. Of course, yet again the Dark Reunion was taking yet another action against him. Perhaps this might actually amount to something. “Are you boys sure it escaped? An animal attack is just the kind of plan they’d come up with. Fear not, I, the Jet Black Wings, am never fooled by their evil deception! Someone must’ve set that snake free on purpose.”
“Hang on, you know the guy who did this, Kaidou?”
“Some wannabe supervillain called the Black Wing?”
Shun held back a scoff. “No, I’m Jet Black Wings, the hero. The villains are a secret organization named Dark Reunion and this escaped snake thing is the first step in their evil plot to sort mankind.”
“Dark Reunion! Who? Geez, never heard of them.” His classmates walked away, uninterested. Shun shrugged them off. If they didn’t wanna listen, fine. It wouldn’t matter in the long run anyway.
Shun joined his comrade at his seat, glad that he was in the room. “Heheh, once again the fate of the world has fallen into our superpowered laps, eh, Saiki? Saiki, what’s your read? I don’t like this one bit. The snake which I’ve named Murder-Dragorum Snake is likely no ordinary snake! It’s also likely that Dark Reunion genetically engineered Murder-Dragorum Snake specifically to kill people. We’re running out of time here, Saiki. The world’s counting on us to stop that slaver—”
“Hey, good news! They caught the snake!”
“Well that’s a relief! Where did they find it?”
“At the school’s front gate. It was just laying on the ground, half dead.”
Shun’s eyes widened in surprise. Is it possible Saiki and I aren’t the only students with superpowers?
“Kay, why was it half dead?”
“Some first graders were whipping it around.”
“Sounds like we beat Dark Reunion this time.”
“Be careful what you say, they’re an all powerful secret society!”
“Who knows what they’ll do to you when they sort mankind?”
Their mockery was like knives in his gut. Had he truly been wrong about it being the Dark Reunion? Or were their attempts truly that feeble that they posed no real threat?
Shun turned to leave the room. “Go ahead and laugh. This is the calm before the storm.” Despite his best efforts, he felt his throat clench. “Dark Reunion is coming! I tried to warn you all, I swear!” He ran to the bathroom before anyone could see his face.
Embarrassing! He was sure it was the Dark Reunion! It was just the kind of thing they’d try. Those kids didn’t know what they were talking about anyway, they hadn’t been there, they hadn’t seen Dark Reunion at its height! They didn’t know the horrors that lay in wait for all of them!
The sound of screams pulled Shun from his thoughts. That was coming from the classroom!
Shun wasted no time in booking it out of the bathroom, his assassin instincts kicking in and giving him no real time to think about what he was doing. He made it in time to see a snake coiled on the floor, hissing at his classmates.
I see, so the one at the gate was just a ruse. This is the real Murder-Dragorum Snake! “Everybody, get down! I’ll take care of this snake.”
“Kaidou, what’re you doing?”
“Alright, Murder-Dragorum Snake. It’s time you faced me, the Jet Black Wings!” Shun fell into the pose he was once familiar with, and for a minute it felt like he was back as his old self, the threatening aura of Black Beat flaming around him like dark fire. “Let’s go.”
“That’s a real pose!”
“Let’s get out of here while we can!”
“They’re having a fake superhero fight a real poisonous snake, now?”
Then, the illusion was broken as he suddenly remembered that he wasn’t in fact his old self and actually had no control over the power he once found so useful. Why did I think I could fight a snake? I was so stupid!
As though the snake could sense Shun’s bluff, it paid him no mind as it launched itself towards one of Shun’s classmates whose name he couldn’t remember off the top of his head. Instinctively, Shun threw himself in front of her.
Oh no, I’m screwed! I love you, Mommy! “Take this! Judgment Knights of—”
The snake suddenly seized midair as it was seemingly struck by a blast of raw, electric power, before falling to the ground, dead.
Shun stared at his hand. He hadn’t expected that to work (after all, none of his power had truly shown itself since he was little). I really do have superpowers!
(And, Shun didn’t want to think about how strange that was, because he’d tried in the past to see if any of his power could get past the seal and it never had before and that one attempt to save that girl’s life he knew had been in vain but somehow it wasn’t and later that thought scared him because what if the seal was breaking and everyone was going to be in danger and—)
Shun was at home when he let himself seriously think about the ramifications of what had happened. In the moment, he just felt so good . Like he was his old self again, not weak, cowering little Kaidou Shun. He didn’t feel the uselessness that he’d made a habit of forcing down into the depths of his subconscious. But at home, he realized it didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t completed the triggering action before the snake practically exploded and he didn’t feel the surge of power as it left him and trying it again, in his backyard, somewhere that didn’t have the barrier put in place a decade before, it didn’t work, as it hadn’t all the times he’d tried it in the past. So whatever happened to the snake that day, he knew it wasn’t from him. But then the only other possibility… Saiki hadn’t been in the room when it happened, but Shun supposed he could’ve been using his clairvoyance to see what was happening and then he could’ve been the one to send the strike, giving Shun the credit. If that was the case, he had more control over his power than Shun realized. But then, why keep it hidden? Or maybe…
Then Shun remembered something Saiki had told him in their past life.
We are very different people, Yuuto.
In their past life, Death Shadow had been so stressed and weighed down by all the responsibility and recognition they had to deal with.
Don’t you ever wish you could just be normal? Live a peaceful life?
Shun supposed as Saiki Kusuo, he was finally getting that chance. What he did that day was just him telling Shun that while he would still be involved with matters involving their old selves and would still step in as Death Shadow when necessary, he’d be doing it from the background, staying as invisible as he could manage to get that normal life he always wanted.
Shun smiled to himself at the thought. Okay, Saiki. Then I’ll make sure to do what I can so you don’t have to. For I am The Jet Black Wings!